Fw: [TIER] Fwd: $80 Android Phone Sells Like Hotcakes in Kenya, the World Next? | Singularity Hub

[Osvaldo Rodriguez]

Hi All

I want to share this email from the TIER Berkley group.

Osvaldo

 

C. Osvaldo RODRIGUEZ
cor...@yahoo.com

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Eric Brewer <bre...@eecs.berkeley.edu>
To: ti...@tier.cs.berkeley.edu
Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 1:01 PM
Subject: [TIER] Fwd: $80 Android Phone Sells Like Hotcakes in Kenya, the World Next? | Singularity Hub


I feel like I have been waiting for this day for since 2003.  Finally, a
decent extensible Internet access device for $80.  350,000 sold already
in Kenya.  A nice combination of Moore's Law, Chinese manufacturing, and
open-source software (Android), plus some localized apps as well. And
the price will drop some more...

A truly great enabler for developing regions; now we need (more) content
and apps that make sense.  The ecosystem is started, obviously
sustainable, and will grow, and all of Africa will benefit.

http://singularityhub.com/2011/08/16/80-android-phone-sells-like-hotcakes-in-kenya-the-world-next/

-Eric

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Website: http://tier.cs.berkeley.edu
TI...@tier.cs.berkeley.edu
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[Osvaldo Rodriguez]

Hi All

If you are interested in mlearning here goes a set of emails that are of interest specially for the developing world.

Osvaldo

 

C. Osvaldo RODRIGUEZ
cor...@yahoo.com

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Paul Plantinga <pplan...@gmail.com>
To: ashish makani <ashish...@gmail.com>
Cc: "ti...@tier.cs.berkeley.edu" <ti...@tier.cs.berkeley.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 2:53 PM
Subject: Re: [TIER] Fwd: $80 Android Phone Sells Like Hotcakes in Kenya, the World Next? | Singularity Hub

Along these lines...

We're piloting a few $120 Chinese 7" android MIDs in South Africa. The thinking is to bundle these with build out of cheap WiFi in a few of the low-income/high-density city areas. And you can do decent work on the word processor if you get external keyboard which folds in pretty neatly.

So far it seems reliability is going to be a pain. And these tablets aren't certified by Google to access their app market so you have to fiddle around getting .apk files or use other app markets. Anyway, if you can get basic level of reliability from manuf and enough people on board I suppose local repair shops and app aggregators/developers could start popping up...

On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 7:11 PM, ashish makani <ashish...@gmail.com> wrote:

Examples of projects & lots of insightful discussions at the hn page
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2892031

On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 10:01 AM, Tapan Parikh <ta...@cs.washington.edu> wrote:

On the other hand, I will concede that this makes designing
applications and services that scale gracefully between smartphones
and non-smartphones; and even leveraging the differences between them,
much more compelling...

On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 9:54 AM, Tapan Parikh <ta...@cs.washington.edu> wrote:
> Even if they do, I think smartphone apps will continue to hindered by
> standardization and usability issues.
>
> If you are targeting enterprises (i.e. field workers with training),
> youth or relatively privileged classes (which makes plenty of business
> sense); by all means, try smartphone apps.
>
> The rest of the market just isnt there yet, at least in countries like
> Pakistan and India.
>
> Just my two cents...
>
> On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 9:24 AM, Umar Saif <um...@lums.edu.pk> wrote:
>> IDEOS phones are available in pakistan for about $100. We recently got a bunch of used android phones for our lab for an avg. price of $80.
>>
>> One of the startups I advise just released a news application for smart phones (iphone, android, blackberry, symbian, windows 7) for a TV channel in Pakistan; about 47% of the 200k users of the app are from Pakistan.
>>
>> I agree that android devices are set to become pervasive in the developing-world much sooner than at least I anticipated ..
>>
>> Cheers,
>> --
>> Umar Saif | http://people.csail.mit.edu/umar
>>
>>
>> ________________________________________
>> From: tier-b...@tier.cs.berkeley.edu [tier-b...@tier.cs.baerkeley.edu] On Behalf Of Richard Anderson [ande...@cs.washington.edu]
>> Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 10:10 PM
>> To: Eric Brewer; ti...@tier.cs.berkeley.edu
>> Subject: Re: [TIER] Fwd: $80 Android Phone Sells Like Hotcakes in Kenya, the World Next? | Singularity Hub
>>
>> I've picked up a couple of these in Nairobi - they are working relatively well for our projects.
>>
>> Does anyone know of a comparable Android phone available in India?  We had been led to believe that the IDEOS phone was available in India - but were not able to find any (I guess you can believe everything you read on the web).
>>
>> - Richard
>>
>>
>> ________________________________________
>> From: tier-b...@tier.cs.berkeley.edu [tier-b...@tier.cs.berkeley.edu] on behalf of Eric Brewer [bre...@eecs.berkeley.edu]
>> Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 9:01 AM
>> To: ti...@tier.cs.berkeley.edu

>> Subject: [TIER] Fwd: $80 Android Phone Sells Like Hotcakes in Kenya, the World Next? | Singularity Hub
>>
>> I feel like I have been waiting for this day for since 2003.  Finally, a
>> decent extensible Internet access device for $80.  350,000 sold already
>> in Kenya.  A nice combination of Moore's Law, Chinese manufacturing, and
>> open-source software (Android), plus some localized apps as well. And
>> the price will drop some more...
>>
>> A truly great enabler for developing regions; now we need (more) content
>> and apps that make sense.  The ecosystem is started, obviously
>> sustainable, and will grow, and all of Africa will benefit.
>>
>> http://singularityhub.com/2011/08/16/80-android-phone-sells-like-hotcakes-in-kenya-the-world-next/
>>
>> -Eric
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> TIER mailing list
>> Website: http://tier.cs.berkeley.edu
>> TI...@tier.cs.berkeley.edu
>> https://www.millennium.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tier

>> _______________________________________________